Woomera LA-8

The Woomera Range Complex (WRC) is a major Australian military and civil aerospace facility and operation located in South Australia, approximately 450 km (280 mi) north-west of Adelaide.

After World War II, the British wanted to establish their own rocket testing programme. However, the density of population in the United Kingdom made testing risky, so the British turned to Australia, asking for a site with a long testing corridor containing minimal population. The two nations created the Anglo-Australian Joint Project, a Commonwealth weapons design and test program established in 1946.

Australia was responsible for providing the testing facilities, personnel, and most of the funding, while the United Kingdom supplied most of the scientific equipment and personnel, and in addition to its financial contribution, paid for the weapons being used. At its peak, the complex had an area of 270,000 sq km (100,000 sq mi), most of which was in South Australia, but included a satellite range in north-west Western Australia. This was later scaled back to a total area of 127,000 sq km (49,000 sq mi); still the largest land-based weapons test complex in the western world.

During the 1950s and 1960s, the complex was the second busiest rocket range in the world next to Cape Canaveral.

Historically, for both Woomera and Australia, following the end of the Anglo-Australian Joint Project no further development occurred to make use of the technologies, skills and knowledge gained while the Project was operating. Australia became the fourth nation in the world to build and place in orbit a satellite from its own territory (WRESAT), that was the height, and end, of Australia’s foray into space activities using its own purpose built facility.

~ wikipedia